What's New

The following information provides highlights of some of the enhancements available in this release of vCenter Operations Enterprise 1.0.1.

New Features

Installation and Deployment

This release resolves issues with product instability caused by having two collectors with the same name. When a remote collector is installed hostname is added to the end of the collector making it unique.

User Interface

A new VirtualCenter Relationship Widget that displays the performance status of objects in your virtual environment and their relationships. You can click objects to highlight their related objects. Double-click an object to navigate to its Resource Detail page.

A new Resource Details page that displays information about the main performance characteristics, key metrics, and events of VirtualCenter objects collected through the vCenter Adapter. The Resource Detail page for resource pools, datastores, and folders resembles the Resource Detail page for non-vCenter resources.

This release includes a new VC Analysis Page under the Forensics menu. It can show predefined heat maps to compare the metric values of different objects in your virtual environment or you can create custom heat maps.

Enhanced LDAP options include a user search criteria field for finding and caching users to improve search time. A new member match field is available to specify the attribute name of User object to be matched with the Member entry from the Group object.

Changes to the VM Global Settings Page to customize the Capacity levels to display. You can modify the default values and set the capacity ranges to show green, yellow, orange, or red when capacity data appears.

The Application Overview widget displays the status of all available tiers per application. This release does not include the limit of 15 tiers per application.

Application Programming Interface (API)

HTTP Post API now supports the following 3 new interfaces:

getResourceState: Use this interface to get the state of a resource.

lookupResource: Use this interface to get the identifiers of a resource.

getMetricDataAndDT: Use this interface to get performance data collected for a resource.

High Availability and Scalability

Significant performance improvements were done in various areas of the application such as alert root cause rendering by improvising on the caching model.

Analytics

Improvements were made to the Delta Variance analytics plug-in.

Before You Begin

System Requirements

vCenter Operations Enterprise requires the following system resources:

NOTE: The database must be configured and accessible to the vCenter Operations Enterprise server and ping time between the servers should be less than one millisecond. We suggest the database server hosts only the vCenter Operations Enterprise database due to the resource requirements of the application.

The vCenter Operations Enterprise Client requires the following system resources:

PDF viewer: A viewer, such as Adobe Reader, for viewing reports in PDF format.

NOTE: vCenter Operations Enterprise is fully capable of running in a virtual environment, on one or several virtual machines). In order to configure the necessary hardware environment, please refer to the Technical Support and Education Resources section of the vCenter Operations Enterprise Installation and Administration Guide.

Installation Notes

To deploy vCenter Operations Enterprise 1.0.1, run the installation files.

Known Issues

This section contains known issues for this release.

Issues with the Alert Details page, inaccurate reporting of root cause in metrics, and collection status issues are resolved in a "hot fix" patchA hot fix patch is available for vCenter Operations Enterprise 1.0.1 build 443892. The patch supports the Windows and Linux installations and resolves the following known issues:

The rendering of Timeline Tab in Alert Details page resulted in page break when one of the alarm contributing to root cause was cancelled before the alert was generated.

Some of the metrics in root cause may be shown as part of wrong metric group.

Collection status of a resource was shown incorrectly as "No data receiving" in certain conditions.

Copy the file alive_platform.jar and replace the existing files in the following locations:

%ALIVE_BASE%\common\lib

%ALIVE_BASE%\tools\FSDBJDBCDriver\lib

%ALIVE_BASE%\tomcat\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\lib

Copy file collector.jar and replace the existing file in the following location:

%ALIVE_BASE%\collector\lib

Start all vCenter Operations Enterprise services.

Properties for the Delta Variance analytics plug-in are missing after upgrading
After you upgrade from version 1.0 to 1.0.1, the new properties for the Delta Variance analytics plug-in are not added.Workaround: Complete the following steps to add the missing properties.

The user search column for Microsoft SQL Server is missing after upgrading
After you upgrade vCenter Operations from version 1.0 to 1.0.1, the USERSEARCH column for Microsoft SQL Server is missing due to an error in the upgrade script.
Workaround: Run the following query to add the missing column to the database schema:alter table LDAPHOST [userSearch] nvarchar(1000) NULL;

The replication server does not restart as expected
If ActiveMQ on the replication server side is stopped and then restarted, the replication process does not restart as expected.
Workaround: When the connection to the replication server resumes, cancel the alert and then restart the analytics when ActiveMQ is available.

The bread crumb path is lost when clicking objects from the VM details pageIf you click on object on the VM details page, the bread crumb path is lost and shows only the current page.Workaround: None.

The JVM PATH is missing after the vCenter Operations Enterprise installation and the adapter installer failsDuring the vCenter Operations installation, the PATH environment variable is appended with the location of JRE shipped with vCenter Operations, adapter installer fails if JRE information is not set in PATH variable.Workaround: If the Path variable is not set, execute the following to install the adapter:
<Adapter Installer>.exe LAX_VM "%ALIVE_BASE%\jre\bin\java.exe"

The Adapter Instance Resources status icon displays after deletion
If multiple Adapter Instance Resources feed data to a resource and an adapter instance is deleted, the environment overview displays the status icon for the deleted adapter instance resource.Workaround: None

Manually created resources should have a unique identifier
Manually created resources having the same unique identification (Adapter Kind + Resource Kind + Resource Name or Adapter Kind + Resource Kind + List of Identifiers) can result in wrong system behavior, including resources hanging in start and stop status. This issue also applies to Application Tiers sharing the same name. This does not apply to resources added in system through manual or automatic discovery as uniqueness is enforced by the system.
Workaround: If resources with the same unique identification are duplicate, delete the duplicate resources. If they are different resources, rename the resource or change the List of identifiers conflict.
For Application Tiers, use the following rule for naming: Tier Name=Application Name + ' ' + Tier Type. For example, for "Online Banking" Application tiers, use the names "Online Banking DB," "Online Banking App," etc.

On the Alert Overview page, you cannot search the Root Cause or Info columns
If the text you enter in the Search field on the Alerts Overview page exists only in the Root Cause or Info column, the search will not find it.Workaround: None

You cannot remove the Time Range constraint in the Manage Alert Watch List window by clicking the check box next to itWorkaround: To remove the constraint, bring up the Pick a Time Range pop-up window and remove the date and time from the text boxes.

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 5, the services do not restart automatically after you make changes in the configuration wizard
If you run the configuration wizard in console mode under Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 5 to change properties on an existing server, your changes do not take effect automatically after they are saved.Workaround: You must restart the vCenter Operations Enterprise services manually. Use the run level script vcops.sh to restart the services.

vCenter Operations Enterprise can be set up to be accessed via HTTPS protocol only on the standard port 443.Workaround: None. If you want to use HTTPS, you must use port 443.

You can install vCenter Operations Enterprise only with root user credentialsWorkaround: Please contact VMware Support or Professional Services for information about installing vCenter Operations Enterprise on Linux using non-root user account .

The Configuration Overview widget reflects only collecting resources
All of the information shown on the Configuration Overview widget--resource counts, metric counts, and so on--includes only resources for which metrics are being collected. If collection is off for a metric, its data is not included. For performance reasons, the information is taken from the memory used by the analytics process. If metrics are not being collected for the resource, the analytics process does not keep its information in memory. Workaround: Start collection for all resources you want to be included in the information shown in the Configuration Overview widget.

Maintenance schedules cannot span for more than 24 hoursWorkaround: Split any maintenance schedule that spans two days
into two different maintenance schedules.

vCenter Operations Enterprise does not support Network Area Storage (NAS) for storing FSDB files.Workaround: Use only SAN or DAS devices to store FSDB files.

Role-based security is implemented on the server side, which means access rights are checked when an action is taken
As a result, some actions will not give a message of insufficient access rights until after the user has completed entering information for the action. For example, when cloning a dashboard, the insufficient rights message will not appear until after the user enters the name of the new dashboard.Workaround: None.

Metric value time stamps are not always displayed
The time stamps for metric values are not shown when you are viewing a period longer than 24 hours even if Show Data Values is selected for the graph.Workaround: To show the time stamp for displayed metric values, view a period of less than 24 hours.

vCenter Operations Enterprise stops responding if you delete an application with a large number of resources
Deleting an application which comprises a large number of resources might take a very long time, and vCenter Operations Enterprise might stop responding.Workaround: Delete the individual tiers in the application before you delete the application.

Manual fingerprint preview mode time ranges may overlap
Depending on the screen resolution and number of intervals chosen, creating a manual fingerprint may result in overlapping time range in preview modes.

You cannot uninstall the vCenter Operations Enterprise Collector using console mode on 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux
The command to uninstall the vCenter Operations Enterprise Collector does not work from console mode on 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Workaround:

If you select HTTPS during installation, the host IP address defaults to localhost
During vCenter Operations Enterprise installation, if you choose "HTTPS" as the protocol for communication with the Web site, the detected Host IP is replaced with localhost.Workaround: Manually replace localhost with the detected IP address before continuing.

A blank page is displayed when you log in to vCenter Operations Enterprise if the Skype plug-in for Internet Explorer is enabled
If you have the Skype Plug-in for Internet Explorer installed and enabled, the browser displays a blank white page after you sign into vCenter Operations Enterprise.Workarounds:

Disable or remove the Skype plug-in.

Press F5 after signing in to reload the vCenter Operations Enterprise page.

The number of allowed login attempts is incorrect
vCenter Operations Enterprise allows one more login attempt than is specified in the Allowed Login Attempts field of the Account Lockout Policy pane.Workaround: Set the Login Attempts field to one less than the actual desired limit.

Filtering the Alerts widget by Time Range displays an incorrect message
When the Alerts widget is configured to filter by Time Range, clicking the Display Filtering Criteria icon in the toolbar of the widget incorrectly displays a message saying There is no selected filter criteria.Workaround: To see the active filtering criteria, edit the widget. Each active filter type will have a check mark by it.

Filtering the Resources widget by Adapter kind displays an incorrect message
When the Resources widget is configured to filter by adapter kind, clicking the Display Filtering Criteria icon in the toolbar of the widget incorrectly displays a message saying There is no selected filter criteria.Workaround: To see the active filtering criteria, including the selected adapter kinds, edit the widget.

The Tag Selector widget state is not saved
If you leave a dashboard which includes the Tag Selector widget, then return to it, any tags selected for interaction with other widgets will not be marked.Workaround: None

Environment Overview page and Resources widget do not always sort correctly by health
When sorting by health, resources may be listed in the wrong order on the Environment Overview page and the Resources widget. This is for two reasons: 1) The resources are sorted according to the value in the database, while the value shown comes from the analytics cache. This means the sorting will be wrong while analytics is loading resources. 2) The database stores only the health state (Normal, Degraded, and so on), not the numeric health score. This means that resources in the same state are not necessarily in numeric order.Workaround: None

Filtering Environment Overview resource list by health state can list wrong resources
When filtering the Environment Overview page by health (for example, listing only those resources with "Good" health), the resources listed do not always show as having the requested state. This is because the filtering is done according to the health state in the database, while the health state shown is taken from the analytics cache. if these disagree, the filter appears to include the wrong resources.Workaround: None

"Too many files open" message on Linux server
At times, the vCenter Operations Enterprise Web client can cause Tomcat to have too many file descriptors open at once. This leads to a "Too many files" open error message.Workaround: The number of descriptors is limited at both the system level and shell level. You may need to increase the shell ulimit maximum or the maximum number of system file descriptors by adding or modifying the fs.file-max parameter in the /etc/sysctl.conf file.

Users without permission to edit adapters or applications can edit them through Environment Overview
Users with permission to edit resources can edit all resources through the Environment Overview page, even if it conflicts with other security settings. Users without permission to edit adapter instances, but with permission to edit resources, cannot edit adapter instances through the Manage Adapter Instances window, but can through Environment Overview. The same is true for applications. Users who have permission to edit resources, but not applications, are able to edit applications through Environment Overview.Workaround: Give permission to edit resources only to users who should be able to edit all resources, including adapter instances and applications.

Cannot see total number of metrics for a resource that is not collecting
If metric collection is stopped for a resource, the total number of metrics for the resource shows as "?." This is true everywhere that the total number of metrics is displayed. This is because, for performance reasons, the number of metrics is taken from the memory used by the analytics process. If metrics are not being collected for the resource, the analytics process does not keep its information in memory. Workaround: To see the total number of metrics for a resource, start collection for the resource.

The maximum length for a credential password is 30 characters
When entering a credential, you can enter only up to 30 characters for the password.Workaround: Make sure that all user names used in credentials have passwords of 30 characters or less.

Configuration File Editor uses ResourceKindKey instead of ResourceKindNamewhen it generates emailFilter.xml
The ResourceKind condition in the emailFilter.xml file specifies the name of a resource kind in the format AdapterKindKey:ResourceKindName, for example, VMWARE:Host System. However, when the Configuration File Editor (FilterPluginConfEditor.jar) generates the emailFilter.xml file, it uses ResourceKindKey instead of ResourceKindName. If the AdapterKindKey:ResourceKindName value is specified incorrectly, vCenter Operations Enterprise sends email messages without applying the ResourceKind condition.Workaround: Manually edit the emailFilter.xml file and change ResourceKindKey to ResourceKindName in the ResourceKind condition. For example, if Host System is the localized resource kind name, change VMWARE:HostSystem to VMWARE:Host System.

Updates to the Documentation

This section contains updates and corrections to the documentation for this release.

vCenter Operations Enterprise Installation and Administration Guide

The new system alert "Failed to Connect to Replication MQ" is available in this release and not documented in the Installation and Administration Guide. The following procedure describes the recommended actions for this alert.

Failed to Connect to Replication MQ

Caused by: This System degradation alert will be fired if we cannot connect to replication MQ.

Recommended Action::

Check the replication.properties file to see if the replication MQ is properly configured.

Check to see if the ActiveMQ service configured in the replication.properties file is running. User JConsole to connect to port 1099.

Check to see if the connection to the MQ host on port 61616 and 1099 is available from the machine running the vCenter Operations Analytics service.

vCenter Operations Enterprise User Guide

The description of the Root Cause Ranking widget in Chapter 7, Widgets, is not completely accurate. The Anomalies Activity Period field has been removed from the widget. In Symptom mode, the widget shows root cause information based on anomalies occurring during the previous six hours, unless a different time period has been passed to it by a providing widget. In Resource mode, it shows information based on the previous two hours. When a time period is passed to it by a providing widget, it shows information for all anomalies active in that time period.

The description of the Root Cause Ranking pane of the Resource Detail page in Chapter 4, Viewing Resources and Applications, is not completely accurate. The Anomalies Activity Period field has been removed from the Root Cause Ranking pane. In Symptom mode, the pane shows root cause information based on anomalies occurring during the previous six hours. In Resource mode, it shows information based on the previous two hours.